FBC China

There is no single Chinese market, but rather numerous market segments divided in dimensions that we might have a hard time to comprehend, explains Pia Polsa.

China is a country comparable in size with the USA or Europe. The population of China is the single largest of any single country in the world. For soon a century it has been taken for granted that the Chinese markets are the largest in the world. This might be true on a much generalized level, but Pia Polsa Assistant Professor of Marketing at the HANKEN School of Economics – Helsinki, Finland, and visiting lecturer at Fudan University in Shanghai tells us that the Chinese consumer is much more complex than we might expect.

Despite being a communistic society, the distribution of wealth in China is one of the most widespread in the world – easily surpassing that of USA. Also, the economy of this great country has since the days of Deng Xiao Ping expanded in a way unprecedented in human history. However, statistics tell us that we are nowhere near maturity of most of the market segments. For instance, today, in the rural areas of China still only half of the households own a refrigerator.

There are many aspects to consider when examining the consumer markets of today’s China, explains Mrs. Polsa. The first is that the dimensions for segmentation differ from what might be considered “standard” in the west. The other is that China’s society is in a flux; the traditional social fabric is changing rapidly. The culture of consumer possession is quickly displacing the tradition of sharing utilitarian goods, such as a TV, among one’s neighbors. This has created a large group of people who today have more than they could have only a few years ago dreamed of, but are today lonelier than ever.

READ MORE ABOUT CHINESE CONSUMER PREFERENCES IN THE DECEMBER ISSUE OF FINNBIZ.

On November 9th Mrs. Pia Polsa held a lecture for a joint-Nordic crowd of some 100 guests on the topic From Mao to materialism – Chinese consumer behavior

Currently Mrs. Polsa is working as a visiting scholar at Fudan University, School of Management. She earned her PhD from HANKEN in 2002, and has since published articles in marketing journals such as Journal of Business Research, Journal of Services Research, Supply Chain Management, International Marketing Review, Journal of Academy of Marketing Science Review, and International Journal of E-Business Research. Her thesis topic was Chinese marketing channels and she has published on Chinese consumer behavior. Her main research interests are service and relationship marketing at non-profit setting in China, international marketing channels, and cross-cultural methodology.